Kicks in Amarillo February 5, 2007
Posted by Ron in Attractions, Businesses, History, Restaurants, Towns.add a comment
This recent story in the entertainment section of the Amarillo Globe-News does a decent job of summing up the Route 66 attractions in the Texas Panhandle’s largest city.
Bicycle ride will assist Iraq veterans February 5, 2007
Posted by Ron in People, Road trips, bicycling.12 comments
The Desert Dispatch of Barstow, Calif., reports that Vietnam War veteran Ken Rhodes plans to bicycle Route 66 to Washington, D.C., to raise funds for Iraq War veterans and muscular dystrophy research.
He’s going to leave Santa Monica on April 4, the anniversary that the helicopter he was riding in was shot down in 1969. The paratrooper was shot in the left leg. Rhodes earned two Purple Hearts during his tour of duty in Vietnam.
He started training for his bicycle ride last summer. On a good day, he can go 100 miles, despite a prosthetic knee and a pin in one leg.
Rhodes, who lives in Apple Valley, wants to get the attention of the American people to let them know that the veterans coming back from Iraq need their encouragement.
“They’re young kids and some of them have never been away from home,” he said. “And you give them a weapon and they have to go kill people. That’s on there for the rest of their life and they’ll never forget it. We need to help them, we need to put our arms out to them.” [...]
“I’m not protesting the war or anything like that,” said Rhodes, a California native. “I just want to help. I want the people to support the troops even if they disagree with the war. I don’t want to see what happened to the Vietnam vets happen to these guys.”
The article says that Rhodes is trying to set up nonprofit status for his Rhodes Foundation of America. I’ll pass along more information about the nonprofit when I get it.
